SECTION XI.
STAMP NO. X.—FOUND AT KENCHESTER.
In the Journal of the British Archæological Association for 1849, Mr. Roach Smith has described a medicine-stamp found at Kenchester, in Herefordshire, and communicated to him by Mr. Johnson. I myself am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Johnson for both a model and drawings of this medicine-stamp, which is quadrilateral, and engraved on its four sides. It has, besides, the word SENIOR inscribed on one of its flat surfaces; and the four first letters of the same word are repeated on the opposite surface. I shall afterwards have occasion to re-advert to this curious point.
Mr. Smith has published a sketch of the stamp; but the more correct drawings of it in Plate III., No. X., have been kindly furnished to me by Mr. Johnson. The six lowest figures in this plate represent, first, the two flat surfaces of the stone, with the retrograde inscriptions upon its four sides; and, secondly, these four inscriptions as they appear when impressed upon wax.
The inscriptions on the four sides of this stamp read as follows:—
1. F.VINDAC.ARIO
VISTIANICET
2. T.VINDACIAR
(i)OVISTINARD
3. (T) VINDAC. ARI
OVISTI CHLORON
4. T. VINDAC . ARIO
VISTI ... RINM
The name of the oculist or proprietor, t. vindac ariovistus, Titus (?) Vindacius or Vindex Ariovistus, is singular; the name ARIOVISTUS being the same as that of the celebrated German king and general that plays so interesting and important a part in the Commentaries of Cæsar, and the reputed valour and prowess of whose troops daunted for a time, and almost created a mutiny in, Cæsar’s army.
On this stamp there are no names of any specific eye-diseases given; but the four sides contain the designation of four collyria that we have not met with on any of the previous medicine-stamps which we have had occasion to describe. These are the collyria Anicetum, Nardinum, Chloron, and Thurinum.
1. T. VINDACii ARIOVISTI ANICETUM.—The Anicetum or infallible Collyrium of T. Vindacius Ariovistus.
The collyrium Anicetum, or Ανικητον, is, as far as I know, described by Oribasius alone. It was composed of red copper, combined with henbane, hemlock, spikenard, frankincense, etc. Oribasius enters it as a collyrium “ad carbunculos aptum.”[555]
Mr. Roach Smith supposes that the collyrium Anicetum of this stamp derives its name from being a preparation containing aniseed. But the formula given by Oribasius does not present this ingredient; and the origin of the term is, we believe, very different. Galen presents us with a clue to its true meaning, when discussing the subject of plasters, in the sixth book of his work, De Compositione Medicamentorum. One, bearing the name of ANICETUM, is (he observes) called so in consequence of its many and wonderful effects (vocatum est insuperabilis (ΑΝΙΚΗΤΟΝ) propter miranda et multa ipsius opera).[556] The term itself is, no doubt, derived from the Greek participle νικητος “conquered,” with the prefix of the privative α. Among his own list of collyria, Galen enters the one known in his time under the name of Collyrium Aster,[557] as unsurpassed (Αστερ Ανικητον[558]).
2. T. VINDAC.—ARIOVISTI NARDINUM.—T. Vindacius Ariovistus' Nardinum or Spikenard Collyrium.
The ancient authorities on the Materia Medica describe several kinds of spikenard, according to the localities in which it is procured, as the Indian, Syrian, Celtic, etc. It was used by the Romans in many of their ointments and perfumes,[559] and sometimes added to their wines.[560]
The nard, or spikenard, was used principally to perfume various medicines, etc. But high medicinal properties were also attributed to it in various diseases, and, amongst others, in diseases of the eye. (See Dioscorides, lib. i. cap. vi.) It entered into the composition of many of the ancient collyria, and several were named from it in consequence of its forming their leading ingredient. Aetius has a long chapter on formulæ for “Collyria Nardina et Theodotia,”[561] and bestows the most extravagant praises upon some varieties of the spikenard eye-applications. Speaking of one of them, he observes, “It is not easy to relate the powers and efficiency of this medicine; indeed my readers would scarcely credit it, for under the most desperate affections it recalls the eye to its natural state.”[562]
3. T. VINDAC. ARIOVISTI CHLORON.—The Chloron or green Collyrium of T. Vindax Ariovistus.
Already I have had occasion to allude to the collyrium Chloron, as one of those which derive their particular appellation from the tint or colour of the preparation. The green collyrium, or Chloron, is mentioned in many of the old treatises upon affections of the eye. For example, Galen gives several such collyria in succession, as, vol. xii. pp. 763 and 768, the “Chloron ad diatheses;” and again, two forms of Chloron used by Zoilus the oculist.
4. T. VINDAC. ARIOVISTI TuRINUM. The Frankincense Collyrium of T. Vindacius Ariovistus.
The designation of the collyrium on this fourth side of the Kenchester stone is so very much destroyed as to render the deciphering of it extremely difficult and problematical.
Mr. Roach Smith has not attempted to read it; but has contented himself by giving N as the last letter of the collyrium, and the only one capable of being deciphered, printing the whole legend on this side thus:—
T VINDAC. ARIO
VISTI ..... N.[563]
But certainly the terminal letter is not N. Mr. Johnson has kindly supplied me with two wax impressions of the legend on this side. One of these is faithfully copied in Plate III., No. X., lowest figure. The examination of it will show that the terminal letter is not an N; for the supposed middle or oblique line of the letter descends downwards from left to right, and not, as it should do, provided the letter were N, from right to left. The two first letters of the name of the collyrium are entirely obliterated. In the position of the third letter there is the head of a letter which may stand for R, B, or P. The following letter is apparently an I; and the next an N. In reading it, I have supposed these three consecutive letters to be RIN, and the terminal letter to be an M, or rather a V and M braced together. An instance of a similar bracing or conjunction of two letters is seen in the legend of the second side of this stone, where the terminal two letters TI of “Ariovisti” are conjoined into one. Further, I have ventured to suggest the two initial letters as TU, and the whole name as consequently TURINUM.
The collyrium Thurinum, or Turinum, is inscribed on three Roman medicine-stamps that have been discovered in France,—the first in Paris, the second at Cessi-sur-Tille, and the third at Solangei. The two last are both described by M. Fevret de Saint-Mesmin.[564] The collyrium evidently derived its specific name from its principal ingredient frankincense, or thus, this latter Roman noun being sometimes spelt with, and sometimes without, the h. In the Solangei stamp the collyrium is written THURINUM; but in the stamps of Paris and Cessi-sur-Tille it appears without the H, or as TURINUM.
The collyrium Turinum is, it is scarcely necessary to add, merely a latinised form for the Greek collyrium Dialibanum, the composition and virtues of which we have considered in the previous pages (see pp. 269 and 283). The Latin translators of Oribasius and Paulus Ægineta render the collyrium Dialibanum as written by these Greek authors by the term “Collyrium ex thure.”[565] In the same way the κολλουριον το δια λιβανου γινομενον of Galen is rendered by Kühn, and his other translators, as “Collyrium quod fit ex THURE.”[566]